Columbia

It's DAY SEVEN and we are in Columbia, MO at a Red Roof Inn. We drove from Bartlett down to Columbia yesterday - a  very nice drive. We stopped just to get rice and beans at a Popeye's - one of Ellen's favs, and I read aloud from Richard Rorty's Contigency, Irony and Solidarity which we are gradually digesting and I think are beginning to fully understand. I think I might be able to describe myself as a theological ironist - which would be a paradox for Rorty because he opposes irony to theology. But maybe he would appreciate the irony of the paradox. I also read aloud from Vol. I of My Book House.  A little backstory there. Back home we are in a poetry group that meets once a month. In January the session was cancelled because of weather. It was going to be a bit of a departure - we were going to bring our favorite children's books. Thinking back, I realized that as a young child, there were very few books that our family owned - I don't think we could afford them. But we did own Olive Beaupre Miller's My Book House, a 6-volume set. I was pretty sure that set was still at my brother's house, so I went there Saturday, and sure enough it was there. So I have it now, and can bring it to our group when we finally get to have children's books as a theme. I left vols 2-5 at Maggie and Jerry's for space considerations in the car, but brought vol. I - In the Nursery. It is very worn - obviously the volume that was most used. It is a wonderful collection of Mother Goose rhymes, folk stories, Aesop's fables, etc. The illustrations are classic:

Vol I of My Book House

I'll show more of it in future blogs,

Last night Ellen, Katie and I had supper together and then went to see Selma. A very powerful film, and especially so for me because I was part of the last two days of Selma-Montgomery march.

Katie and Ellen at the movies

More later - we're meeting Katie for breakfast at Cafe Berlin.